Some conventional apparatuses are designed to perform binary monochromatic facsimile transmission on the basis of the facsimile transmission procedure defined by the ITU-T recommendation T.30 and also perform color facsimile transmission according to a unique procedure.
Color facsimile transmission procedures have recently been standardized by ITU-T recommendations.
Under the circumstances, there have been proposed apparatuses capable of performing monochromatic and color facsimile transmission on the basis of the standardized facsimile transmission procedures.
Some ink-jet printers that can be applied as the printing units of facsimile apparatuses are designed to allow a user to select one of a plurality of types of cartridges, e.g., a monochromatic cartridge dedicated to monochromatic printing, a color cartridge which has yellow, magenta, cyan, and black inks and is capable of performing monochromatic and color printing, and a color cartridge for photographic printing, which contains inks of special compositions to print photographic images and the like more sharply.
Many facsimile apparatuses have already been proposed, each of which has a printing unit capable of monochromatic facsimile transmission and allowing a user to select a monochromatic or color cartridge as described above. In such an apparatus, when a monochromatic facsimile-received image is printed, the remaining amount of black ink is preferably detected to check whether the image is normally printed, as proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-94981. An apparatus has also been proposed, in which, if the lack of black ink is detected on the basis of the result of black ink remaining amount detection, subsequent monochromatic facsimile-received images are not automatically printed but are stored in an image memory in the facsimile apparatus (memory alternate reception).
Any conventional facsimile apparatus which can perform monochromatic and color transmissions and has a printing unit that allows a user to select a monochromatic or color cartridge as described above is not designed to detect only the remaining amount of black ink upon receiving a monochromatic facsimile image and automatically printing the image, with a color cartridge being loaded, and detect the remaining amounts of inks of a plurality of colors required for color printing upon receiving a color facsimile image and automatically printing the image.
There has not been any apparatus either, in which when a color facsimile image is received while, for example, only yellow ink required to print a color image has run out, so-called memory alternate reception is performed, but when a monochromatic facsimile image is received in the same condition, automatic printing is performed by using black ink.
The following problems also arise in a facsimile apparatus of this type.
Assume that a color facsimile image is received while a cartridge dedicated to monochromatic printing is loaded into the printing unit by the user. In this case, if the received image is automatically printed, a so-called monochromatic gray-scale image is obtained instead of a color image.
Assume that a monochromatic facsimile image is received while a color cartridge for photographic printing, which is more expensive than a general color cartridge, is loaded into the printing unit by the user. In this case, if the received image is automatically printed, the running cost increases as compared with a case wherein the cartridge dedicated to monochromatic printing is used, thereby imposing a burden on the user.
In order to solve this problem, there has been proposed a method of temporarily receiving a received image in a memory in a facsimile apparatus and allowing a user to manually print the image.
According to this method, however, the user must manually print each facsimile-received image, resulting in a heavy load on the user when he/she frequently receives facsimile images.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the prior art described above, and has as its object to provide an image forming apparatus which has a printing unit that allows a user to select a desired one of, e.g., a monochromatic cartridge, color cartridge, and color cartridge for photographic printing, and can receive monochromatic and color images, a communication apparatus using the image forming apparatus, and a printing control method.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus which has an image forming unit that allows a user to select, e.g., a cartridge dedicated to monochromatic printing, cartridge for color printing, or cartridge for photographic printing, and can receive monochromatic and color images, and a communication apparatus using the image forming apparatus, which automatically print received images, where possible, while preventing received color images from being unintentionally converted into monochromatic images and reducing running cost by suppressing printing of received images using expensive inks.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which can notify a user of an inability to perform automatic printing when a received image cannot be automatically printed.